For mechanical blood coagulation on endogenous hard tissues, for example bone, it is customary to treat resected bone parts with bone wax. For the same reason, blocks of bone wax are also used to cover spaces filled with spongiosa.
The waxy masses used up to the present time were made, for example, of beeswax, almond oil and salicyclic acid, or beeswax and isopropyl palmitate. Relevant literature includes, for example:
Douglas, B. L.: Oral Surg., Vol. 6, p. 1195, 1953;
Selden, H. S.: Oral Surg., Vol. 29, p. 262, 1970;
Shields, T. W.: General Thoracic Surgery, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia, 1972; and
Wolter, D. et al.: Chirug., Vol. 46, p. 459, 1975.
In general, postoperative healing proceeds without disturbance; bacterial contamination is rare.
Commonly, however, in the case of the bone waxes used for coagulation during surgery up to the present time, coverage of the implant by granulation tissue containing abundant macrophages and giant cells is observed, see D. Wolter et al., op cit. The granulation tissue becomes fibrotic within the body with the passage of time.
Direct contact between the bone and the wax does not occur. Nonspecific foreign body reactions often takes place at the spongiosa/bone wax contact zones. This inhibits the new formation of bone and promotes the development of pseudoarthroses, see Geary, I. R. et al.: Ann. Surg., Vol. 132, p. 1128, 1950 and Howard, C. C. et al.: Clin. Orthop., Vol. 63, p. 226, 1969.